howard



3 Sheets-Sheet 1. II. HJWARD. BALL BEARING (No Model.)

Patended Nov. 4, 1890,

INVENTDR.

WTN E55 E5- MMMMM (No Model.) 3 Shets$heet 2..

H. HQWARD. 1 BALL BEARING.

No. 439,877. Patented 'Nw. 4, 1890.

(No Model.) 3 Shees-Sheet 3.

Ha HOW ARD. BALL BEARING.

No. 439,877. Patented Nowira l, 1890.

A'rtN-r Fries.

HENRY IlOlVARD, OF PIIENIX, RIIODE ISLAND.

BALL-BEARING.

SPECIFICATION form -g part of Letters Patent No. 439,877, dated November 4, 1890. Application filed May 7,1890. Serial No. saopasi. ea mod 51,)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY IIOVVARD, of Phenix, in the county of Kent and State of Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ball-Bearings; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked there on, which form a part of this specification.

This improvement refers to that class of inventions for using balls to lessen the friction of bearing-surfaces upon each otherbyehanging a rubbing to a rolling action. When balls have been used for this purpose, they have been so arranged and confined in theirmovements that their effects upon the bearing-sunfaces have been received in limited spaces thereon with the disastrous result of wearing grooves or'channels in the r-n-"rfacct. that they were intended to relieve. In my improved way of using the balls this difficulty is avoided by distributing the effects of the rolling action of the balls over the whole surface of the bearing.

One of the first difiiculties found in using balls filled into a bearing promiscuously was their interference with each others motion when the bearing was in use, and to remedy this collars or Washers were introduced to separate the mass of balls into circles around the bearing, the spaces between the collars being made a little wider than the diameter of one of the balls, to allow them free play. This method of arranging the balls removed the trouble of their interfering,but produced the other difficulty of making grooves in the bearing-surfaces by causing all the balls in each circle to follow in one track. In my mode of arrangement the balls are held in place by a loose spiral or eccentric guide that extends from one end of the bearing to the other, and which is free to revolve i dependently of the journal and bearings, having a space between the turns of the spiral to form a trough or passage to receive a row of the balls, these turns being a little wider apart than the diameter of one of the balls, to insure freedom of motion.

Figure 1 shows a section of a box or bearing with a journal in elevation and a representation of a spirai or curved guide with balls, the guide being shown partly in section and partly in elevation. Fig. 2 shows, for comparison, the former mode of holding the balls in a bearing. Fig. 3 is a front elevation of a part of a bearing with a part of a guide and some balls, with lines indicating the paths of the several balls. Fig. 4 shows a crosssection of a bearing with a circle of balls. Fig. 5 is a vertical longitudinal section of. a bearing and guide with shaft or journal and balls in elevation. Fig. 6 represents a guide containing the balls separate from the bearing for transporting or handling. Fig. 7 represents a portion of the guide, partly in section, to show how its inner and outer edges are extended over to hold the balls in. Fig. 8 shows a part of a journal with inclined washers, forming a curved or inclined guide for the balls. Fig. 9 is aperspective view of one of the inclined Washers seen in Fig. 8.

A is the axle or journal; D, the hub orbearing; 1), the spiral guide, and denotes the balls.

The width of the space allowed for the guide 1) between the balls is supposed hereto be about the same as a that allowed for the balls-that is, a little more than the diameter of a ball-though less or more space may be allowed for the guide. The outer diameter of the spiral guide I) is a little less than the diameter of the circle outside of the balls, and the inside diameter of the turns of the guide is a little larger than that of the axle or journal A, that the balls c mayproject beyond the guide b both inside andoutside to receive the impact of the surfaces of the bearings.

The spiral guide 1) may have straight sides radially; but for the purpose of holding the balls in place when the hub or box D is removed I make the outer peripheral surface broader than the body of the guide by extending its edges a over the sides of the balls, and thus make the outefopening into the passage between the turns of the guide a little less than the diameteref the balls, so that the balls cannot come out, though they will still project sufficiently to make contact with the surface of the box. I also make the inner surface of the guide 6 to extend over the balls 6 in the same Way, so that the balls will not drop in through the guide when the axle or journal is taken out of it. This construction, which is shown in Fig. 7 in section, forms a hollow trough or passage between the turns of the guide to hold the balls in the guide when it is taken off of the axle, and by closing in the end at d and the other end at b a little the guide containing its proper complement of balls can he handled as an article for transportation for use anywhere. (See Fig. 6.) The end at b is beveled off, so that the balls can be pushed into the passage, springing the end out a little as they pass in and closing sufficiently to prevent them from coming out. The advantage ofthis spiral arrangement of the balls in their effects will readily be understood by reference to Figs. 2, 3, and 4, in which the old and the new methods are contrasted and explained.

Fig. 4 shows a section of an axle with acircle of nineteen balls around it. Fig. 2 shows a side elevation of the axle with those balls e held between straight collars d' in the old way, and it is ovidenttha't each circle of nineteen balls will bear as theyroll on the hearing at e" e and wear a groove .at that point. Now, by reference to Fig. 3, in which the balls are shown with the spiral guide I), it will be seen that each one of the nineteen balls will have its separate track of contact with the bearing indicated by a vertical line from the center of each ball that cuts the line of the bearing at one of the marks e so that the rolling friction ot the nineteen balls is distributed over nineteen times as much of the surface of the bearing as it was in the straight collars, and if the latter would run six months in fair order the balls in the spiral guide should run nineteen times as long, or nearly ten years.

In Fig. 8 is shown an arrangement of washers b placed on an axle in inclined positions, by which a short spiral guide from the bottom to the top of the axle and back on the otherside to the same point is produced, which will have some of the efiects of my continuous spiral guide, but which I consider an inferior mode of arrangement.

Fig. 9 shows aseparate washer.

Fig. 5 shows a vertical section of a bearing with jnn' wl n elevation. It also shows a hardened metal bushing a between the balls 0 and the journal A, and a similar bushingc outside of the balls e. f f are screw-collars for the purpose 0t keeping the bushings in place.

The guide I) can be used with only its periphery broadened when the guide and balls are to be retained on the journal, and with only its inner surface widened when it is to stay in the hearing, as the balls will be securely held in either case.

Ilaving thus described my improvement, what I claim as my invention is- 1. In a ball-bearing, a spiral guide formed of rings connected together to form a spiral trough or passage for the balls, substantially as set forth.

2. A spiral guide for the balls in ballbearing, made separate from the bearing and journal and having the end of the spiral passage closed so as to retain the balls in place, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. n a all- 1' ring, a spiral guide on the bean 11g separate therefrom, formed by placing rings on the bearing inclined at an angle to the radial plane of the bearing, substantially as specified.

4. In a bearing using balls to diminian inction, a loose spiral frame having the sides of its convolutions hollowed out so as to hold the balls in position independently, substantially as described.

5. In a bearing using balls to diminish friction, a loose frame having the sides of its coils hollowed out so as to hold the balls within and revolving freely around the shaft, substantially as described.

6. An anti-frictional bearing having interposed between the two wearii'igsurfaces rolling parts, the tracks of which are out of line or non-coincident, substantially specified.

HENRY H (3 a-J.

Witnesses:

HOWARD F. KING, BENJ. ARNOLD. 

